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Speaking at the meeting on Wednesday, February 28, Cllr Grashoff explained the decision was one of the reasons her Conservative colleagues would vote against the budget, adding a similar cut in 2010, from eight people to four, led to a "wave of complaints" and eventually one member of staff was reinstated.

She said it was "illogical to make the same mistake again".

However, her comments didn't go down well on the Labour benches, who said cuts to the police by the Tory government are more likely to be the reason for a rise in violent incidents.

Cllr Liz Terry, lead member for neighbourhoods, said the comments were "galling," adding it was "your government" that had cut cash to local authorities.

"Actually, it's the number of police officers not on our streets that's the real issue," she blasted. "Not whether there are CCTV cameras and whether they work or not.

"They don't cover the whole town, they never have and they don't support all convictions of all crime.

"It's actually good solid policing that does that, and we would like to see that."